Friday, February 10, 2012

Strange Views, Not so Strange: Cities, Green, and the Rest

Whatever’s going on in this photograph, it seems to me, is entirely obvious. It’s not usual, of course, for the foreground to be out-of-focus, nor for the blurry foreground objects to all but obscure the in-focus background objects. In fact, you have to look a bit to see anything in the background at all. There’s more grass, it looks like some trees, and a building.

As for that building, I’m crippled in seeing it because I know what it is, and I also know that it’s the tallest building in New Jersey. Which is, of course, irrelevant. But, if you don’t know what building it is, what do you make of it? Do you even know it’s a building? I mean, it could be some concrete marker post, couldn’t it?

And why take such a photo? Such a non-image, which is, upon reasonable inspection, obvious, is it not? We take many photographs so that we can remember something, whatever it is in the photo. This photo can hardly be about rememberance, can it?

This photo, too, the foreground is blurred. But not so dense. The in-focus background is clearly visible. There’s that one tree in the middle, echoing the grasses in front, and they echoing it. Those echos, and the space in between, I suppose that’s what’s happening here.

And this, this next photo is sweetly obvious. There’s a city in the distance, actually, two cities, separated by a river you can’t see. There’s a field, a salt marsh actually, of grasses of some sort. And that patch of green in the middle. The green, the cities, and the rest.